Tenant Blacklist

[dan c]

Here's an article re: blacklisted tenant numbers increasing in the past few years. It's from the Adelaide Advertiser, so it's SA focused.

18,000 are on the blacklist, of approx 170,000 renters in SA. Of these, 62% owed damages and rent above the bond.

Some of the comments underneath are staggering.

 

[Ed Barton]

Here's an article re: blacklisted tenant numbers increasing in the past few years. It's from the Adelaide Advertiser, so it's SA focused.

18,000 are on the blacklist, of approx 170,000 renters in SA. Of these, 62% owed damages and rent above the bond.

Some of the comments underneath are staggering.

i'm surprised the % is so high. how do these people house themselves once they are on the black list?

 

[dan c]

i'm surprised the % is so high. how do these people house themselves once they are on the black list?

I'm glad you said that, I was surprised, too. It's over 10% of renters.

 

[weg]

Numbers are on the increase because more private LL are using the database???

Last inspection I had one couple come through who looked very neat and tidy, apart from one having a front tooth missing , who behaved nice as pie ie. don't worry we never bother the LL coz we love doing our own maintenance, love gardening, are never home because we 'normally' work very long hours (were unemployed att), etc.

Their previous rent reciepts were paper reciepts and they were living with the brother.

DING, DING, DING DING

Thought I check them out on Tica for the fun of it and yes they were there. The previous LL who put them on contacted me, and told me the worst nightmare tenant story I've ever heard away from ACA or TT.

The ones I did end up giving the place to, I didn't bother to check on, and they're the perfect tenants.

 

[NSWinvester]

Is this "blacklist" information available to the public or just RA?

 

[weg]

Is this "blacklist" information available to the public or just RA?

The information is available to REA and private LL (after joining and paying for service).

Both can list problem tenants as well as access info.

 

[Sunfish]

What's worthy of being listed? I had a tenant who paid on time and never damaged the property beyond spilling candle wax on the patio (That is a pain) but I think my PM would have liked to BL them because they were whingers who wouldn't do simple things for themselves. It would have been easier to fix little things himself rather than spend the time emailing photographic evidence to her and emptying out a colour cartridge on her printer.

Just asking.

 

[weg]

What's worthy of being listed? I had a tenant who paid on time and never damaged the property beyond spilling candle wax on the patio (That is a pain) but I think my PM would have liked to BL them because they were whingers who wouldn't do simple things for themselves. It would have been easier to fix little things himself rather than spend the time emailing photographic evidence to her and emptying out a colour cartridge on her printer.

Just asking.

You can't blacklist tenants because they whinge, or due to other 'trivial' reasons.

Listing rests on the decision of the Residential Tenancies Dept. or courts - so really the law decides whether they've legally breached and have money owing.

Now I don't know the legality of a particular form, but TICA have one that is given to the prospective tenants to sign when they fill in the application, which states the LL has their permission to check the database and list if need be (the legals are explained here).

The tenants who I mentioned in the previous post returned this form blank - don't know if it was legal for me to look but I did anyway .

 

[Doovalacky]

i'm surprised the % is so high. how do these people house themselves once they are on the black list?

The other issue is they are often into another property before the last tenancy gets processed through the courts for the debt collect/blacklist etc.

 

[mattysavager]

Hi there.

It is illegal to list a tenant on a database such as TICA if they do not owe money for damages/rent.

Even if the tenant trashes the property, if the damage can be claimed from the bond, and the landlord is not out of pocket - the tenant may not be listed.

They also must be removed once they pay the agent back.

Many tenants do secure a new property before they have been listed by their current agent for rent/damages, and sometimes it comes back to bite them when they then move again.

At my agency, we do get tenants from 1,2,3 etc years ago come back to the office and pay their outstanding rent or damage so we will take them off the lists.

Landlords who subscribe to TICA etc are very rare and unfortunately that's where the bad tenants usually end up.

Hope this helps.

 

[Lil Skater]

Hi Matty,

Bare in mind, the laws are dependant on the state.

Here in VIC they just changed our laws regarding listing tenants on databases, which are now similar to QLD. However it is not yet uniform across the country.

We subscribe to NTD at our agency, however with the new laws it's going to be even harder to see whether a tenant has bad history or not. This is why, when possible, I like meeting prospective tenants so I will usually carry out all my own inspections and process applications - unless of course I'm sick/on leave.

First impressions count for me and I always trust my gut.